Hello everyone, so let me explain how this happened, I got home from work one day and the g/f had accidentally downloaded a trio of trojan worms - Between a combination of msconfig, safe mode, and AVG i was successfully able to nullify the virus, it doesn't run anymore - This i am very confident of.
The problem is that Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer don't really function anymore, or i don't trust them enough to use them anymore. The problem is difficult to describe, but random elements of certain pages refuse to load. Sometimes entire pages do not load. Any sort've Flash interface seems to not function. It could be javascript also. Running Firefox in safe mode does nothing.
I figured a picture might help describe the problem more accurately, currently one of the most busted sites is Penny Arcade. Firefox and Internet Explorer both make the website look like this:
http://kwix.shackspace.com/firefoxbroke.JPGI also happen to have Google Chrome installed - and the strange thing is that Chrome works like a charm and was obviously unaffected by these viruses. What i want to know is there anyway of repairing my Firefox and IE back to a stable running condition? I mean - i could just use Chrome now, but i'd rather use the browser i enjoy using. I've already tried reinstalling both of these applications with 0 effect. Could this be caused by some sort've registry edit? Perhaps there is something else i can do to help discover exactly what is wrong with them? Any info you guys can give me on what i might be able to do to fix these two applications would be huge. Thanks. I know that it might not be either of them, there are tons of mini apps that get installed as you browse - things like javascript and flash and i worry that perhaps one of them is busted now, but if thats true then why does Chrome work?
Again - any help would be huge. Thanks guys.

If Google Chrome seems to take a long time to load a website or search, it may be configured to acccess pages through a web proxy. Check whether the "Resolving proxy" message appears in the lower-left corner of the browser window.

Shellipe, you seem to be the one to solve everyones problems, could you please try and help me, I was watching a tv show via sidereel.com and went to an external link then i somehow got a load of trojan virus, i downloaded AVG which detected 37 threats and removed and repaired all of them, now when ever i try and open a file or program such as 'i tunes or piscasa or firefox' etc it comes up saying "open with" and a browse option etc, also all the program icons have disapered from the bottom right tool bar, another error message when going to start/programmes/itunes says: "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action, Create an association in the Set Associations control panel" i dont no what to do and cannot open anything on my desktop or menu... please get back asap if you can help, GT

I had the blank screen issue with Firefox and IE, but not Chrome or Safari, on Windows XP. With Kaspersky Internet Security previously turned on plus running Ad-Aware and a host of other "solutions", I just could not fix the problem. I'm so glad that I finally came across your post. YOUR SOLUTION of Godzilla Fix + Malwarebyte (Full Scan) worked like a dream. I can now use all web browsers. THANK YOU so much for your help!

I have had the same problem many times. I was able to remove the virus but repairing the damage, e.g., IE or Firefox will not open. I tried a host of things, namely, resetting IE but what I found today was that I went to the C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Connection Wizard\Run inetwiz.exe\select Connect Using LAN if you are on a Local Area Network, Check Auto Discovery of proxy server, uncheck manual proxy server if checked. Skip setting of email (optional). Hope this helps although you have connectivity, I had none.

I was infected with some trojan yesterday, the result was all three browsers were hijacked whereby search results when clicked on were re-directed to something like this server: xsweetbear.com or something like that, then it took me to a health or insurance website. Ran antimalware/malbytes. It found a few things but did not fix the problem. I ran some more antihijack and antivirus programs off download.com, again they found things but none solved the problem. SUPER antispyware ran for 30 minutes and found 60 items, that seemed to rid the trojans but result was a new problem, similar as above: No conncection on IE or Mozilla, BUT Chrome was fine.

Found this thread this morning, ran "Shellipe's" suggestion and sure enough manual proxy was checked. Unchecked it and voila, IE is up!!! Looks like as a parting gift maybe the trojan changes that setting or maybe it is default, who knows. Had to uninstall and reinstall Firefox, and now that is rocking too. I am going to stick w/ Mozilla going forward, IE blows.

Hope this helps anyone, these forums are phenomenal, thank you. Saved me a trip to the (shiver) geek squad! Death to the trojan maker douches.

I just finished cleaning out a nasty trojan virus and had to use multiple cleaners to get rid of it. Malwarebytes Anti-malware seemed to do the best job of identifying and getting rid of it. I also used Panda Cloud Anti Sypware and it did a pretty good job of identifying other files.

The problem was once I had cleaned up the virus, my Chrome browser no longer worked and gave me 404 errors for every page. The funny thing was that firefox and flock worked with no problems. I was really bummed because I prefer using Chrome because I find it to be faster than the others. After reading this forum I went to Options in the Chrome browser clicked on Under The Hood tab, from there I clicked on Change Proxy Settings, then I clicked on Lan Settings, I unchecked Use a Proxy Server and checked Automatically Detect Settings.

Works like a champ now. I hope this helps anyone else having a problem and thank you to everyone who previously posted the solution here.

I have the same problem. (removed trojan successfully using a combination of Syware Doctor and CCleaner but IE7 and Firefox hang Google Chrome works fine). One of the first things I checked was the Proxy settings and they are set to auto already. I also tried running the inetwiz wizard and the settings already coincide with automatically discover proxy settings.

I have been fighting this stupid Windows Antivirus Pro all day! I ran mbam-setup from Malwarebytes, counterspy, AVG, and SmitFraudFix. I used thier automatic process and followed about three manual processes of going into the registry and so on.

It seemed as if, and I have my fingers crossed, I have eliminated all the strings of this little #!@$. However, I still could not launch IE. All my troubleshooting was completed using a second computer and then sharing the different virus/spyware sofware over the local network to the cripled computer.

I was just about to try reloading my MS Win XP MCE when I said let me try surfing for a solution one more time. Thank God I came across Shellip's words of wisdom.

It seems as though it was just unchecking that manual box that alloud connection.

I may be stupid, but how do you get into the connection wizard? I tried following the link and it didnt work... in internet connection it just says im already connected to the internet... please let me know! thank you!

It worked for me! I am preparing for my Internal Medicine Boards and these instructions saved my life; I could not log on to internet and now, following your instructions, I made it! Strong work Shellipe!!!!

I had the same problem and it worked for me as well! Thank you Shellipe :) Excellent work!
The spyware/virus that started the whole chain of events and kept coming up was AntiSpyware Soft typically it made popups that asked you to purchase their crap. Who are these scammer scum slimebuckets who propagate these things? I wish I could find their operation and go in there with a sledgehammer and a taser!
I removed the spyware/virus by installing and running AntiMalware in Safe Mode, but I had the problem of my browsers not working afterwards, in my case they were IE, Google Chrome, and Safari. Thankfully Firefox did work and I found your post.
Thank you again Shellipe.

THANK YOU THANK YOU. My proxy checkmark was greyed out, but your solution worked perfectly. I had to hit ctrl-alt-del on bootup to bring up task manager, and then ran rkill to stop antivirus soft from loading up (otherwise, it would prevent me from running ANYTHING). After I fixed it with malaware, I couldn't use Chrome or IE like Shermm. Firefox worked, and I found your post. Thanks!

Thank you sooooooooo very much for this fix. This was the final fix I need after a virus jacked up my computer. It attacked AVG, I kept getting a Windows Installer prompt, had to do a registry cleaner, and finally this. Once again Thank YOU for this final fix.

This was my first posting. I'm excited that your happy!! I also ran SuperAntiSpyware and Malware Bytes then adaware to double check. Adaware came up clean. I then ran Security Task Manager to help identify potential threats. Also important to check and disable any unnecessary Add ons (IE/tools/manage add ons).

Thanks for the effort! BUT I cannot get IE (or Firefox) to do any thing !!!
I tried the safemode AVG ... But nothing happens! It does update but nothing else!?
I have tried to remove AVG but there is an error says it wont!
Firefox is supposedly the latest!?

I will try a 'stronger' virus catcher and let you know! Any words of wisdom?
THX: Super Z (and I don't feel so super right now!!!)

sorry for takin ur tume Shellipe but ur not done just yet =P i'm havin the same problem but it seems like ur solution only works for XP, cuz i've tried following it to the letter but it ain't workin, oh yh forgot to mention i'm using Win7... and i have no access to IE8 nor Firefox seeing as how they both crash instantly so please any help wud work

I'm having the very same problem, but I'm running Windows Vista. And there doesn't seem to be a Connection Wizard subsection in the Internet Explorer folder. Any chance there is a different way to reset the proxy settings? Or maybe I have to do something completely different?

Yo Shellipe! U Rock!!! I usually do not leave msgs on blogs. But you forced me to it dude... I had the System Security 2009 malware on my system. Took hours to remove it only to find that my browers (IE and Safari) did not work. Your fix has restored my IE brower... Will look for a similar solution for Safari.

I have a big big problem. I got a virus I suppose a trojan which I delected. but since that time I can't get to internet throuth firefox and Internet Explorer. Moreover msn messenger doesn't work. When I try to start those application a little window with a message say : "IE stopped working" "firefox stopped working" "msn messenger stopped working". when I start yahoo messenger it works fine but there is no messages when I try to start IE, firefox and msn messenger. google chrome works fine.

I thought I answered this a long time ago. Go to start menu, Run type cmd in the run box and when the black DOS screen opens, type ping 127.0.0.1. If it says reply from 127.0.0.1 then your ethernet card is working fine.

thank you soooo much Shellipe!! I searched for hours to solve this issue and you were the only one to submit something that worked. My computer had many viruses and spyware on it, after cleaning those off I could not get online on IE. I tried EVERYTHING on other blogs/boards (including many TCP/IP fix software tools) and nothing would work. I even tried mannually reseting my TCI/IP and Winsock in CMD prompt. Once I cleaned off the DL32.exe virus I could not get back online..

Thank you so much Shellipe and everyone here that posted their problems/solutions. I have had the same issues that everyone else here seems to have had or are having (due to viruses) and spent the past week trying to get our work laptop back online and running smooth.

Thankfully enough the laptop is now finally running firefox/chrome/IE again.

How do i do it on windows vista? my internet explorer and mozilla both do not open unless i put the computer in safe mode. I tries doing the LAN setting in safe mode but it does not work unless im doing it wrong. When i try to install certain programs in normal mode the computer just just turns off and restarts and goes to the screen where i can put it into to safe mode. Help

I have a similar issue, I run vista and IE works fine but Firefox displays nothing but a blank page and Google Chrome says that the Webpage is unavailable, I've run CCcleaner and ESET and they both resolved issues but none of which helped with this problem, its been this way a while and I really want help..so THX in advance!

So i tried "For Windows Vista open IE/Tools/Internet Options/Connections/Lan Settings/Automatically Detect/Uncheck User Proxy Server" but still no luck, I've ran 4 different virus scanners and between the 4 of them it says everything is gone but my internet still keeping screwing up! Im going insane its been like this for a week, and of course I no nothing about computers except the basics HELP!!!!

I've been reading this forum and it's really helpful, but I have a somewhat different problem (maybe it isn't different?). I'm not that great with computers. Google Chrome and Mozilla stopped working after I uninstalled Norton 360 v 2.0...my computer got infected with trojans and what not afterwards. I used Vipre to get rid of the trojans and malware. Like you all, only IE works, and the others don't. The only thing is, I made the mistake of unistalling mozilla and google chrome, thinking that i could reinstall it. Now i can't download google chrome or mozilla from IE, it's not letting me. I also tried downloading a Norton removal tool thinking that I didn't remove it entirely or properly, but even IE didn't let me download the tool. I tried changing the proxy settings and what not, we're just stumped here. Any help would be really appreciated!

Nice to hear that you are a woman, I hope whoever has employed you is paying you mega bucks. After reading all the posts I also had to write for help. I just got home booted up my laptop went to the internet only to find that Mozilla firefox could not connect to the proxy server. I went into tools/options/network/settings and the radio button was on system detect so I changed it to auto detect did I do the right thing or have I got a virus somewhere lurkingto strike back at me? Also my laptop screen comes on very rarely usually it just has a blank white screen can you help a fellow female here?

O MY GOODNESSS!!!
Thank you so much for your help Shellipe! I was also running vista have been pulling my hair out for weeks trying to fix my IE. I was just about to give up and shell out hundreds to get someone to come fix it for me.

It is possible that you did not removed all of the virus. Run Superantispyware, Malwarebytes and then Security Task Manager. Also your router may have configuration issues. Check with your IE provider after rerunning the removal tools. Check IE's tools/manage addons. Anything look unfamiliar, especially with a long series of numbers, disable it. It will ask if it is actually needed by a program. Go to registry, and check the run and run once under Local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version (double click)/Run. Check the Run Hive for any unusual software (google it if you are not sure) and the run once hive for the same. Always back up registry first. Check the automatically detect settings again and make sure everything else is unchecked. In IE Tools/Internet Options/browsing history/settings/View Objects check for any unfamilair objects/ google them remove if found to be a potential threat. Security Task Manager is pretty good in identifying potential threats. Delete temporary internet files and clean all Temp folders (do a search). If I think of anything else, I will post. Good Luck..also, I have found that certain HP model laptops (If this applies) have a recall based on a hardware issue that prevents the computer from detecting wireless. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us. Ping the loopback address to make sure your wireless device is working properly 127.0.0.1.

I am sure you corrected this problem; however, if you haven't hears what I learned. After trying all the advice posted here nothing worked. Since I have alread complete clean my hard drive to get rid of the many trogan virus and reloaded Windows XP fresh, I still couldn't get online. After hours of searching I learned that the network adapter driver was missing. I did some research and learned that this is difficult to get unless you have the original driver disk that came with the system. Of course I have no ideal where they are so I am contacting a friend to see if they can help me. Hope this helps the next person.